Comments
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Thanks for your story
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Great story Ryan. I was in Vietnam in 1966 as a helicopter mechanic in the USAF. I have now retired and live in San Jose, Ca. While out jogging in the mornings, I recently befriended a Vietnamese girl who was a "boat person." we have had several conversations about her escape when she was 5 or 6 . Her husband came by the same route, but two years before her. They met and married in San Jose. I have known several Vietnamese here, including two neighbors, but they were all born in the US. We thought it was a rough life as a GI in Vietnam,...little did we know !
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Thank you for sharing your journey. Mine was similar ... Escaped in1979, similar hardship and ended up in Thailand as well.
Hats off to you and your son for creating this wonderful documentary. Truly a piece of history. Thanks again. -
Who could dislike this?
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That is one of the best films I have ever seen. Thank you Ryan. I am very proud that your dad landed in Nebraska, where I grew up. I wish that I could have been directly involved in welcoming and nurturing Vietnamese refugees to USA. You have enriched the USA immeasurably. If you're in the San Diego area - please look me up, My family and I would be honored to meet you.
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a true and painful story for the vietnamese refugees in the kingdom of thailand i iwoul like to tell a true story about the vietnamese victims in the vietnamese refugee camp know as sikiew in the thailand in fact ,it is a prison of abuse . torture. robbery . and execution . i knew this story because iwas working as a volunteer for the [coerr] in the sikiew refugee camp //after the north vietnamese communist took over the coutry many south vietnam people fled the country to avoid thecommunist some escaped to thailand and lived in the refugee camp . know as sikiew and panatnikhom . under the provisions of the us delegation . . these vietnamese in sikiew camp .who registered on october 1 1995 . / june 30 1996 are eligible to be participated in the program . calle /rovr / in which they would be temporarily repatriated back to vietnam .and then later .immigrated to the usa under the ,rovr. program / because thepanatnikhom camp is closing and the us . delegation presented in the sikiew camp only / some refugee in panatnikhom camp escaped to sikiew camp in hope to register for the , rvor . program .however they didn' t get this chance of happiness . these refugee were captured by the sikiew police and denied the right to meet the us delegation //all were cuffed like prisoners and presented to the nakhon.ratchastma court and the court decided to lock then outside of the province .among these [prisoners] the women children and minor gril center panatnikhom camp .were rapaed and beaten repeatedly and brabarically by the thailand soldiern and police in prison , the men of these abused wives and children were also beaten andtransferred to live in prison with death row prisoners ...fortunately . the bang kok ,bbc . special envoy timely rescued these people . later these in human .soldiers and police in fear .that the un high commissioner and the us delegation may found out about their shocking act. they hid the black fraud .fraudulenthy switced the profiles and records of these vietnamese people and imposed the repatriation of these people back to vietnam.although these people were voluntarily wanter to register for the . rovr . progam . even more inhumanly . they injected mental drug in to these vietnamese people so that they would forget what had happened to them . and would not tell the un high commission and us delegation their stories //it has been 20 years. now and thesevietnamese victims still are living in fear .humiliation m. sickness . and mostly died . but thesethailand criminals are still alive with cavalier attitude in our society without any organization or high commission for their inhumanaly trial the action of these thailand police and soldiers are even evil than the red khmer /////ps , please help me and translatr this story into thailan italy..for the world to know and rest the soils of these vietnamese victims /////all there vietnamese victims are recorded in the nakhonratchasima province count on thursday , june , 27 .1996 at the time of the. rvor . program ..thark //author and witness nam quoc nguyen
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what an amazing production ^_^ rich with animation, pencil, and water color drawings. I am so honored to have found this searching for "Vietnamese refugee documentary" blessings to you and your lovely family.
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Wow. This is a very emotional story. I worked with a Vietnamese professor in UCLA and I only knew he moved with his family when he was young. Now I would like to know more details about their migration.
War is not good. I wish people would always choose peace over war. -
Very emotion! Very inspiration! What's a life time memory. Thanks for telling your own story, for your time and effort to make your "Sea Of Memory" video, the life risky journey to seek for Freedom - especially in English too which helps the youngsters can understand how horrible the Boat People situation had been through between life & dead! We all value Freedom. Thanks Ryan for raising concerns & curiosities to interview your dear Dad. You did a wonderful job ^5 God bless to you & to all your loved Ones.
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I am a 7th grade teacher and used this with my class. Thanks for making this awesome film. It really helped them to understand life as a refugee.
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This beats any History Channel documentary simply because it is so personal. I'm going to show it to my class of 8th graders. Bravo!
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I can't imagine the struggle. Thank you for sharing your story. It really puts things into perspective about life, survival, the human spirit to move forward...
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Oh my God bless you more
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Thx u for this video it help me to do my homework
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This is an incredible video! So stunned by the story telling and artwork. Thanks so much for sharing. I also shared my mom's story as a Vietnamese refugee in this short doc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlxjntFPGtU
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What an amazing video!! I live in Australia and I have some good friends that where Vietnamese refugee's. The stories they have told me about escaping Vietnam and living in Vietnam during the war are heart breaking. Your courage and strength is inspirational, you should be very proud!
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COOL
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It cool
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This was a amazing the storied so I knew a lot of vietnamese people why they chose to escaped their country with extremely risk still waited them forward. Many thousands of boat people were died on sea and pirate attack but they try to find the place freedom to escaped communist from North Vietnam. Anyway everything was past but the third generation was born in freedom country should be remember how their parents come to freedom country. Thanks you for sharing your memory I hope your family all the best thing
Official blog & behind the scenes & soundtrack: http://seaofmemorydocumentary.blogspot.com/ After the Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, more than a million people fled the communist ruling by boats to the South China Sea. They faced obstacles such as pirate attacks, violent sea storms, thirst and starvation. Many lives were lost. Those that survived the journey immigrated to noncommunist countries around the world. The majority of them found freedom and new life in the United States. My dad was one of them. --RYAN NGUYEN, 2011 -------------------- Sea Of Memory - A Vietnamese Boat Refugee Documentary Film -------------------- ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY FILM "Sea Of Memory-My Dad's Boat Journey, 1979" is a story about my unforgettable boat journey for freedom in the South China Sea, taken place 32 years ago today. I produced this movie with my 10-year-old son and completed it earlier this month. The 24-minute documentary contains a large collection of personal documents (immigration papers, letters, photographs, newspaper clips, my artwork and animations) that I have kept since the day I arrived in America at the San Francisco Airport on Thanksgiving of 1979. My name is Nam Nguyen, a naturalized U.S. Citizen. I am a visual journalist with more than 20 years of experience working at three major U.S. newspapers. I came to this country in 1979 as a 12-year-old boat refugee from Vietnam. Stories about Vietnamese boat people from three decades ago have lived in the hearts of many Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S. and overseas. Many of us fled our homeland on small boats navigating, the open ocean, during the years following the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Sea Of Memory is a first person narrative like no other. It tells a story about a twelve-year-old teenager who left his whole family and country behind, going on a boat journey with his young cousins. He packed all his belongings, family comfort, and the world as he knew it, along with his innocence, into a small carry-on bag. He entered a small secret compartment in the bottom of a small river boat, headed into the journey of the unknown. He endured dangerous communist security checkpoints along the Mekong Delta, met deadly pirate attacks the next day and faced violent sea storms in the darkest night in the South China Sea. Along with 67 people on his boat, he lost everything to the pirates but his life, which was spared by salvation, in the form of a ship named "Akuna." He ended up staying at a refugee camp, a remote island and jungle in Indonesia, and eventually immigrated to America, the land of freedom and opportunity. The documentary was done in an interview style by my son Ryan, a 10-year-old fifth grader. It's Ryan's initial idea and a take off from another documentary short version for his film academy project. The narrative represents only a piece of reflection from a much richer and more extraordinary experience three decades ago that I will never forget. The story is intended for young audience but it has great educational value for people of all generations. Nam Nguyen, April 11, 2011. (Thank you for watching and for your kind feedback!) --------------------